How to Get a Promotion at Work

In my time as a recruiter and career consultant, I’ve noticed a pattern among people: one of the major reasons they hop from job to job is because they never feel like there is any opportunity for growth.

People are constantly telling me how they can’t seem to get ahead or just can’t get their boss to respect them. Meanwhile, there are those select few who do get promoted, who doget raises and whodo get major kudos from their bosses.

So how they do it? Is there some secret formula to it? Not really. In fact, a lot of it is actually common sense. Listen up as I explain how you can gain your boss’ respect, and in turn, start shaping your career for a better future in three easy steps.

Step 1: Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

There’s a popular rumor out there that suggests Gen Y thinks they are entitled. In my professional experience working with college grads, I haven’t found this to be totally true. However, there are a select few who do expect things like promotions to happen without any real effort. And this isn’t just with Gen Y–I’ve seen it within every age group I’ve ever interviewed. Those are the people who have very rude awakenings throughout their career.

So how do you make sure you aren’t one of those people? By keeping yourself in-check as often as possible. While it’s awesome to go after big goals and career dreams, we have to make sure that we are still being realistic and flexible along the way. Below you’ll find some examples of questions to ask yourself before stating that you aren’t getting what you deserve:

Are your salary requirements merited, or are you being overzealous?

Have you consistently exceeded your personal and company goals, or simply done the bare minimum?

Step 2: Step Up to the Plate

The first time I got a raise at my current company was when I showed my boss I could really step up to the plate and work under pressure.

Here’s the story: I was originally hired as the receptionist, so all I really did was admin work. One day, a former recruiter decided he was going to quit without giving notice, and just stopped showing up to work (big no-no, by the way).

Meanwhile, we had a full schedule of candidates and no one to interview them. So what happened? I ended up interviewing them on the fly, which led to my boss training me to conduct interviews and making it a part of my job description. As a result, I got a raise and eventually started getting bonuses for placements.

Was I nervous? Yeah, kind of. But when the business is in a pickle, you have to show you can step up. And believe me, that kind of attitude gets rewarded in the long run.

For more on how you can stand out and get noticed by your boss, check out this stellar guide from CareerBuilder.

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